Thursday, July 28, 2016

Oregon Continued

Friday/Saturday - July 22/23

We are in Time Out. Not where we want to be, but need to be. The Ford engine did strange stuff. Originally, we were going to have it serviced by Northside in Portland. I had an oil change done there years ago. They were nice and more importably they welcome RV’s. Most shops will not consider working on them. We were not able to find an RV park anywhere close to Portland, so we bailed out and went south to Salem and spent two nights in a county park. We were able to stock up on pita bread and more fav beans in Portland, so it was not a totally wasted trip.

We turned 90,000 miles this week. We had the spark plugs and coils replaced two years ago. The only other major repair we have done were brakes this year. Now this, what ever it is. Hoping for something simple.

We shopped at WinCo and Costco. A few states allow groceries to be sold in bulk. That’s a feature of Winco in Oregon. Several isles of bulk food.

Sunday - July 24

We drove an hour south to Junction City, to an RV service center. It’s huge. Over 450 RV’s, plus parts and rentals. They have parking for those needing service. At least two dozen places with electric hookup.

A friend turned us on to Greg Brown’s tune Eugene. Since we are are close to Eugene I thought maybe one of you might enjoy hearing the words. It captures what we seek roaming around out here.

Monday - July 25

Turned out the service rep I talked to Saturday was a new guy. The rep I encountered today was not at all interested in even discussing engine work. He did refer me to an independent garage with experienced Ford mechanics. I went there and talked with the owner for awhile became convinced he knew what he was talking about, was fine working on RV’s, but they did not have an opening until Thursday. We bailed for the cooler beach an hour away and will be back in Junction City for service Thursday morning.

We are parked in one of our old haunts south of Florence. Surprise, the campground is maybe half full. Quite a change from what we have seen the last few weeks, well actually the whole trip.

Nice to see these again

The lagoon behind our site. Usually there is a Blue Heron on duty.

Tuesday, July 26

We took the Jeep on the sand. Kinda felt like we had to as our sand driving decal expires the end of this month. The marine layer was heavy, but well offshore. We did come on this eagle. She looks more like a cardboard silhouette in the light. But, we certify that she did fly.

We went to the library in the afternoon and used their bandwidth to download season 4 of Orange Is The New Black. We would also be willing to certify that this library patron reliably votes for Democrats.

The Lady In A Hat

Wednesday, July 27

Intentionally got away late as we were not in a hurry. We got the oil changed and parked at the casino for lunch and nap. Then we undertook the arduous 90 minute drive back to Junction City. On the way, the garage called and asked if we could come in Friday instead. We were almost there, so he said come on and they started on it soon after we arrived. We are parked next to their building with electric hookups - needed in the mid-80 heat.

Check out the control hut/living space atop this abandoned train crossing of the Susilaw River. I think the operator must have been quite busy since there must have been hundreds of boats tied up along this river judging by the mooring pilings that go upstream for miles. I suspect there were also many canaries. It’s all gone now. No commercial fishing at all.

Thursday, July 28

They found a small leak in the hose that goes under the battery and the dryer? to the dash. That repair was booked at 6.5 hours because of all the stuff that has to be removed. They did not have the time to do it and it works well enough for now.

They had no idea about the antics of the evil engine. We have driven it five times since then and had no problems. No codes. He tweeted a few things and cleaned the Mass Air thingy and something else. We are headed south where there are no mechanics for hundreds of miles. Will we have more problems?

Dorothy wanted to go to Eugene, so we did. Spending one night here. Went downtown to a used book store. Homeless people all around. In the paper they are discussing what city park to move a lot of them to. Same deal going on in Portland.